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Category Archives: flowers

A Posy, A Poem and A Painting

What a special visit with our lovely 104 year old friend. This is the garden posy we took for her today.

We had been directed to a very special booklet, of poems written by T’s father, J A Nickinson, in 1944. Each poem is a delightful evocation of the time and tells a story that touches one’s heart. I have permission to share this poem, ‘Thompson’, and, later, the beautiful water colour that accompanies it. This narrative poem, for a cat lover, is a particular treat, full of the observations that any cat person will recognise.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 30, 2023 in books, flowers, garden, nature, photography, poetry, Postaday 2023, Uncategorized

Tags: J A Nickinson

Tomato, Shallots and Aliums

19 Jul

We ate our first tomato today and it was delicious! Here it is just before I picked it.

We’ve harvested the shallots and brought them home to cure in the sunshine. We are delighted with the number we have, having thought they were not doing well.

The Drumstick Aliums are loved by all sorts of pollinators, especially bees.

Allium sphaerocephalon

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 19, 2023 in allotment, environment, flowers, garden, growing, nature, photography, Postaday 2023

Tags: Allium sphaerocephalon

Veggie Bags and Veggies

06 Jun

I did all my volunteering at home last week and for another hour today, sewing two more of the bags that Roots uses rather than bags for the weekly veggie deliveries.

When I arrived today, I was amazed at the growth of the vegetables (and the flowers) since I was last there. My job today was sowing two trays of Spring Onions. Enjoy the gallery.

Poppy

Marigolds

Produce

The bund with wild flowers

I filled these two trys with Spring onion seeds, 5 to each cell.

More amazing growth

Colour in the bund

Volunteers in the fields

Poppies and Vetch

A Rose, Laburnum and A Fascinating Fact

29 May

Other people’s gardens are full of colour too. There is a rose down the road that looks like a big scoop of raspberry ripple ice cream.

The Laburnum tree on the corner is gloriously yellow (but is poisonous 🙁

I learned a fascinating fact today about Forget-me-nots. Their tiny flowers are a lovely blue and their centres are yellow – but once pollinated and all the nectar has gone, the yellow fades to white and the bees know not to waste their energy on those but to choose the ones still with yellow centres.

I really hope that’s true. I have checked it and found it several times…….

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 29, 2023 in environment, flowers, garden, nature, photography, Postaday 2023, Uncategorized

Tags: forget-me-nots

Echium, Fountain and Clematis

18 May

These huge and wonderful Echium are just down the road. They are alive with bees.

Our fountain at the back of the shed pleases me.

The Nelly Moser has its first bloom.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 18, 2023 in flowers, garden, nature, photography, Postaday 2023, Uncategorized

Carn Brea, Blue and White

12 May

Lovely view from town of Carn Brea castle and the Bassett Monument……

It’s Iris season and we have some beauties.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 12, 2023 in Carn Brea, Cornwall, environment, flowers, nature, photography, Postaday 2023

An Award, Craft and Tulips

29 Apr

Our lovely Greengrocers, Butchery and Deli has won an award – Best New Local Business – certainly very well deserved. It’s always a pleasure to shop there where fresh seasonal veggies can be found, where delicious deli dishes, beautifully prepared and presented can be taken home for lunch and where everything you need to make good meals at home can be sourced. We are really very lucky to have such a shop in our town.

In the shop are some lovely crafty items made by another delightful local business, Make A Mends. Several businesses in town now have such items, all beginning Re as showing their belonging to our Redruth community. I shall seek them out and show you.

Our white tulips are gorgeous especially with our jewel wallflowers.

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 29, 2023 in art, community, Cornwall, craft, felting, flowers, nature, photography, Postaday 2023, Redruth, sewing, Uncategorized

A Posy and Two Poems

26 Apr

One of the joys of visiting our Dear Friend Ti, is sharing favourite poems and remembering lines together of poems that we both learned by heart many years ago. It will be her 104th birthday in a couple of weeks and she remembers more of the lines than I do. Here is the garden posy that we took for her today and two of the poems we shared and talked about.

Sea Fever by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

I love this poem and when living in South Yorkshire, has a lovely poster of the poem and the sea in my office.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 26, 2023 in flowers, garden, photography, Postaday 2023, Uncategorized

Tags: John Masefield, Robert Frost, Sea Fever, The Road Less Travelled

A Painting, A Poem and A Border

26 Feb

Poetry for Ukraine
Artwork is by Ukrainian artist Anastasia. Her work can be found in her Etsy shop called AyToysArt.

I have been given permission to share both the remarkable poem and the beautiful and moving artwork with you.

Poetry for Ukraine

A powerfully beautiful poem from on the ground: John Gordon Sennett is from the Jersey Shore and lives in Ukraine with his wife, Natasha and dog, Philly Cheesesteak.

Night in Chernivtsi

Street lights no longer shine on the backstreets of Chernivtsi

Stars twinkle in and out above the low ridge of a distant mountain

Random apartments give the blue light glow of TV from their windows

One dog barks, another one starts and soon after a cacophony of howls

Silver moonlight, shines off the shiny new rooftop across the street

The smoke of the cigar rises and fades lingering for only moments

Ukrainian cognac coats the lips, mingles with the cigar taste

Then mixes with it and brings out one of life’s simple treasures

And they are dancing in the streets now in liberated Kherson

Peace for now but all here know that it will not yet be a lasting one

We celebrate anyway, we go on, we fight, we write, we do what we have to

Defeat does not exist in our reality and neither does the offer of surrender

Who is foolish enough to negotiate with the devil?

Or even to speak with him as if he is a civilized being?

No, the troops of ours will roll on until he leaves this bountiful land

We will roll on doing the work it takes to win this awful, unfair war

Shevchenko on his hill will stand and salute all those who continue the fight

All the greats of Ukraine who told us that it was so will rise from the ashes

And dance when the victory of Ukraine finally comes and wraps us within

Our souls and spirits know it, feel it, smell it and taste it

Our bodies may be worn, hungry, tired, abused, injured and broken

But it is within that counts and together, we all know that

So we will light our candles in our churches and pray before icons

Some of us will fast for the coming Nativity season and St. Nicholas Day

We are used to giving up things so others may fight, may win and may continue

United no matter what our race, creed or identity in the battle with evil

All of us will stand against it in our own way, raise whatever weapons we may have at our disposal

We strike down that evil that has come from the ugly east

With pen, with sword, with voice, with guns, artillery and drones

Stand with us if you believe in freedom is all that we ask

There was work to do at the allotment this afternoon, just general tidying up ready for the start of the planting and sowing season. Our Tete a Tete border is lovely and bright.